Daily Prompt: Mighty, The Path of the Planets

After my midday golden oldie sleep, I awoke to a bright sun. Luckily I had my stripey curtains closed and was on the east side of the appartment, otherwise it would have been quite an impact. Mr. Swiss mentioned there was a strong shining sun and I had to take the opportunity for a few photos. As I was taking the photos with my mobile phone camera, there was no danger of looking direct into the sun, I was now on the west side of the appartment. I actually did not know what I was taking a shot of, the sun was so bright, but I pressed the button in hope. This morning it was quite misty, but when it clears up during the day it usually can get quite sunny.

This reminded me of a visit we made some time ago to our local house mountain, the Weissenstein with its 1,400 metres above sea level: not exactly one of the big Swiss ones, but high enough. There is a road leading to the top, which you can walk or go by car, but also a lift for the lazy ones like us. In the distance on the photo you can see the lift station on the left arriving at the top of the mountain. This is the other side, looking towards various meadows and the further six chains of the Jura mountains. The yellow sphere in the middle represents the sun and there are all sorts of strange signs engraved on the support pole.

It is the beginnning of the planet path all the planets of the solar system from Mercury to Pluto (although it is still debateable that it is a planet) are spaced out along a long path with their models on the way, in scale. Of course we remained on the sunny side as walking is not exactly my speciality and the complete walk would take many hours to complete. They have nice comfortable benches for the hikers to take a rest. Just opposite, not in the picture, is the mountain restaurant, which was more my sort of thing.

In our younger days Mr. Swiss and I would have prepared a rucksack with various Swiss picnic delights (a cervelat – Swiss sausage – and fresh rolls) and made our way with the others on the planet path, dragging two reluctant sons with us, although they also enjoyed it basically, they just did not want to admit it.

And now we sit in the lowlands and enjoy the mighty sun from a comfortable distance. It is a very clear sky and temperatures are cold, but bearable.

This is a view looking towards the farm land on the other side of the Weissenstein.

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7 thoughts on “Daily Prompt: Mighty, The Path of the Planets”

I used to drag my stepson on hikes and my niece and they both grew up to like hiking though as kids they made noises as if it were the worst thing that had ever happened to them. It was amusing to hear them sing together on the trail, always “wrong” songs like “Psycho Killer” by Talking Heads, no “Happy Wanderer” for them. It was a big hit in English when I was a kid… https://youtu.be/TlAgG-EYkR0

When the kids were kids we always went on walking holidays in the Bernese Overland, but that was fun. Nothing serious. We would stop somewhere, perhaps even light a small fire to toast the sausages. I remember once on a mountain slope we stopped for lunch and suddenly were surrounded by meerkats popping up and down. Being the only woman in the family, I had to make do with the men disappearing behind a tree now and again. Yes, those were the days.

I feel somewhat embarrassed to not be able to recall memories of mountain hikes in my youth. I did clamber up Mount Gilead in the Galilee and down Land’s End in Cornwall, but otherwise, I clambered to get somewhere, and un-clambered to get back. If that was hiking, fine. Never owned hiking boots, either. On the other hand, I didn’t mind walking miles from one end of New York to another, or all across Boston because it was easier to walk than find a place to park and I hated buses.

Today, I’m happy to not fall down while getting across a field to take a picture of the river. Ah how time changes us, eh?

I don’t know why, but I still have hiking boots in the cellar, together with those from Mr. Swiss and the kids: even the special hiking socks – mine were bright red. Today I wear my sketchers for going anywhere. I still have nice shoes in case of a wedding or funeral. I could walk up,any slope, but my body was not made for the downwards path – but my backside could slide down any slope.
Now I have my stick, mainly to hide the silly walk. Now and again I might take a walk, but there have to be benches on the way.

Women’s March 2017

Originally a cockney from the East End of London. Arrived in Switzerland 46 years ago and due to meeting Mr. Swiss, I am still here. Mother of two sons, have been adopted by 3 cats. Worked 30 years as an export clerk for a Swiss machine tool company and am now retired. Like to go for walks with my camera and write blogs, flash fiction, poems to make life interesting. Speak fluent German/Swiss German, French, Italian and some Russian. Mother tongue: still cockney english.

Freshly Pressed

51 Shades of Blog

Being honest the title is based on a remark made on one of my blogs by a supporter.
"You always turn a topic inside out and on its head" were words also applied by a visitor to one of my blogs. I think she hit the nail on the head.

Prompts are there to act on, not just tell everyone what you had for lunch or your likes and dislikes. I trust that on my blog you find something spiced with humour. Mr. Swiss, my other half, has been known to say that not everyone always understands my humour (I do not always understand his).

Blogging is for me coupled with having fun. I do what I want to and not what I have to.

Disclaimer: Not reponsible for any spelling or grammatical mistakes. I do my best, but having two langugages revolving in my brain (yes, I have one), sometimes the result is more bi- than unilingual.